Bitcoin down as Morgan Stanley and Genesis Trading make major market moves

Bitcoin (BTC) is down to $61,000 on Friday as Morgan Stanley has been speaking with its wealth advisors and will soon allow them to offer Bitcoin ETFs to certain clients. Meanwhile, Genesis Trading has moved Bitcoin and Ethereum to multiple addresses and is suspected to have begun creditors' repayment.

BTC updates as the week rounds off

Morgan Stanley is preparing to allow its clients to invest in Bitcoin ETFs, according to CNBC. The asset management firm is looking to permit only two initial Bitcoin ETFs for its clients: BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust and Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund.

The move follows an alleged increase in client demand for Bitcoin ETFs and the company's growing interest in the evolving world of crypto investment products. However, the firm plans to shortlist the number of eligible clients for these new investment products.

The criteria of those who will be allowed to purchase the Bitcoin ETFs include a minimum net worth of $1.5 million and a high tolerance for risk.

While the move appears bullish for Bitcoin, it was quickly outweighed by the news of Genesis Trading moving $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The wallet activity involved the transfer of 16.6K BTC worth $1.1 billion and 166K ETH worth $521 million to several addresses on Friday, according to Arkham Intelligence data. 

Many crypto community members speculated that this significant movement of funds could be linked to efforts to repay creditors in the aftermath of the 2022 market downturn, which resulted in the company's bankruptcy.

Genesis Global shut down its trading operations and the Gemini Earn program in 2022 after it took a hit following the collapse of FTX and Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The company filed for bankruptcy in January 2023, listing 100,000 creditors owed, with liabilities ranging from $1.2 billion to $11 billion.

The case with Genesis is similar to that of the defunct exchange Mt. Gox, which also began repaying its creditors this month. Mt. Gox has already released 59K BTC out of the 142K owed to creditors.

The impact of Mt. Gox and Genesis in repaying Bitcoin to creditors may further affect the price of BTC, which is currently down to $61K.

Santiment data suggested that a drop between $58K and $62K will provide a good buying opportunity for whales, which could help initiate a price rebound.